Polmont YOI inmate uses pool ball to smash fellow prisoner’s face

A Court Reporter

Staff at Polmont Young Offenders Institute had to be on their toes following an assault and an attempt to bring drugs into the facility.

In the space of a month, the YOI, in Redding Road, Brightons, saw inmate Grant McClure (21) smash another prisoner in the face with a pool ball, breaking his teeth, and then a girlfriend of an inmate, Codie Wills (18), trying to smuggle in cannabis to her boyfriend by hiding it in her underwear.

McClure appeared from custody at Falkirk Sheriff Court last Thursday, having previously pled guilty to the assault he committed at the YOI on July 31 last year.

Mhairi Alexander procurator fiscal depute said: “An argument began between the accused and another inmate which resulted in a short scuffle. The complainer was left with two broken teeth and a cut to his lip.”

The victim did not require hospital treatment for his injury.

McClure had been serving 18 months in custody and he and the complainer were not getting on well.

The court heard the two men were playing pool when the complainer made a remark about McClure’s son. This led McClure to pick up a pool ball and throw it at the complainer.

Sheriff Derek Livingston said “This could easily have done a great deal of damage.”

He sentenced McClure, 1a Killearn Road, Greenock, to a further eight months in custody.

Meanwhile, Wills drew the attention of prison sniffer dogs when she entered the YOI.

The procurator fiscal depute said: “The accused was visiting her boyfriend in prison. She entered the visitor holding area and the sniffer dogs became interested in her.

“It was discovered she had a substance within her undergarments. She said she had brought it in and it wasn’t for her.”

Wills, 9 Castlebrae Wynd, Craigmillar, Edinburgh, had previously pled guilty to bringing 1.4 grammes of the class B drug cannabis into the prison on September 4 last year.

Sheriff Livingston placed Wills on a supervised community payback order for two years with the condition she complete 150 hours unpaid work in the community within nine months.